She Doesn't Get It

From the Inquirer: “Six years after taking over the reins of office, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo candidly admitted on Monday before the urban poor of Tondo in Manila that poverty remained the greatest challenge facing her administration.

“We can’t claim that we have progressed as a nation if we can’t uplift the lives of the poor and the hungry in our society,” President Arroyo said in Filipino.

Amid her plunging approval rating, the President conceded that her vision of First World status for the country would remain an elusive dream if a huge portion of the population continued to be mired in poverty.

“We must stand by our beliefs and faith. It is our long-term goal to belong with the developed nations in 20 years,” said Arroyo, reiterating the ambitious goal she set for the country in her State of the Nation Address in July.

To do this, the President again emphasized the need to have a strong middle-class, world-class infrastructure and stable government institutions.”

She doesn’t get it. She needs to understand that it is no longer in her power to stimulate the middle class into becoming more productive, let alone for them to remain in the country. Her reign has become permanently associated with malaise and hopelessness. Government institutions will continue to be unstable for as long as she is in power. Whatever credibility she had has been lost in the series of scandals that have rocked her administration.

Right now, the urgent need is for the country to get together and conserve energy. Not too many people seem to realize that oil is twice as expensive compared to a year ago. This reality will effectively cripple the economy in a year if we don’t rein in all non-essential fuel consumption. Anyone think she can still call on the Filipinos to get behind her on this?

Rampant smuggling of rice, fertilizer, cement, vehicles, various raw materials will not abate until her cronies are all replaced. Tax collection will continue to languish because there is a general impression that the middle class is being made to bear a disproportionate share while big industries habitually get away with generous deals. Who wants to pay taxes that end up in paper sacks distributed to traditional politicians?

In other words, she needs to understand that she is finished as a leader who can bring our country together. She may have seen the promised land but she won’t be the one to take us there.